Preparation for Christmas

It is kind of early for Christmas, you say. Well, actually it is late for me and in truth a lot of you have probably already been working on Christmas for months now. 

So, I am in my new, cleaned up, redone studio getting out all my Christmas goodies - to get inspired, so I can make something new and wonderful.  Oh, there are the old standbys, the usual things I make stars, angels, stockings... So I put on the Christmas music to get into the mood and as I prepared to work, my thoughts were not on creating... but what will bless the people that will buy this. What will my hands make to glorify the Lord this Christmas. 
As I sat this song started to play...
 Mary did you know, 
your baby boy would someday walk on water, 
Mary did you know,
that your baby boy would someday save our sons and daughters,
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new,
This child that you delivered will soon deliver you.

Mary did you know,
that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man and
will calm a storm with his hand,
Did you know that you baby boy has walked where angels trod.
When you kissed your little baby
Then you kissed the face of God.
Mary did you know,
the blind will see - the deaf will hear - the dead will live - the lame will leap - the dumb will speak
The praises of the lamb.

Mary did you know,

that your baby boy is Lord of all creation

and will one day rule the Nations.

Did you know that your baby boy 

was Heaven's perfect lamb

This sleeping child you're holding is the great

I AM

I started to cry... for the first time I saw this from a mother's heart, the same heart as of the Father. 

For it is a mother's heart that is the faint image of the Father's heart.

How much he loved the world to give his only son. 
I don't know if Mary understood completely but I do know the Father did. 
God of all creation to lie helpless in his mother's mortal arms and know that he will be the sacrifice for all.

That morning I was reading Psalm 22.

 Jesus quoted the psalms quite often but it is this Psalm that poured out of his soul when he hung on the cross. It is a slight window into what Jesus was thinking and feeling.

"My God, my God why have you abandoned me?"

This will take ages in heaven for us to understand, the depth of what happened here. That the Father, whom Jesus was one with, turned His back and could not look upon His son because he became sin. He took the burden of every person here on earth, every sick twisted sinful nature and every hideous disease and became that so it could die once and for all. So we could have that same relationship with the heavenly father that Jesus had. That we would become joint heirs of the Kingdom of God with Christ - Sons.  Because of what Christ did on the cross.
Psalms 22 goes on in a prophetic manner to describe the gruesome details of what Jesus was going through.
"My enemies surround me like a pack of dogs, evil gang closes in on me. They have pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones.  My enemies stare at me and gloat. They divide my garments among themselves and throw dice for my clothing.
My life is poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint."


The great shame is too hard to put into words, at any time he could have called down the heavens and not endured this for us... for me.
 I cannot comprehend this kind of love... 
the majesty of leaving the right hand of God to come and become sin. 
But the Psalm doesn't end there...
Jesus went from "Why have you abandoned me?" to " I will praise you in the great assembly. I will fulfill my vows in the presence of those who worship you. What starts with the rejection of Christ ends with the joyous worship of the whole earth. His passion was to do the will of his father, no matter the pain, for the greater glory that would come. He knew this Psalm and it erupted out of his heart in hope as he died for the sins of the world.
Verse 27
The whole earth will acknowledge the Lord and return to him. All the families of the nations will bow down before him.
I have been smitten by his love...
as I sit in my studio, knowing that I can come boldly before the throne of God because of the blood that was shed for me.
 That my heavenly father cares for me and everything I do, 
even sitting here making Christmas stars...
it is more than I can ever imagine. 
How do I accept such a gift, this pure gift of love. 
I cannot in myself.
It is only Christ in me that can do any good thing. The wonderful part about this, is Christ did return to the right hand of God and in doing that he sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us. To help us know the  father. To help us glorify the father. To do the work in us and through us.
So today with the help of the Holy Spirit I do what the Lord has put in front of me,
Christmas...
 and as I work I bless each and every stitch and pray for the person that will receive this small piece of Christmas. 
Made with love from the father, knowing in part what Christmas is.  
Today I am overshadowed by His mighty love...
Rebecca